Pop singer and TV presenter Olly Murs has opened up about seeking therapy to help him cope with anxiety.

Olly was targeted by online trolls after making a mistake during a live television broadcast of the X Factor in 2015.

He said the incident haunted him for a couple of years before coming to a head when he took on a role on the talent show The Voice.

Olly said: 鈥淎t first I was like: 鈥榊es, come on!鈥� And then a negative thought came in: 鈥榃hy am I doing this? I can鈥檛 do it. What if I go and say something bad again on TV? What if I make a mistake?鈥� So many what ifs.

鈥淎nd I made myself ill, literally ill. Sick with worry and anxiety to the point where I was home for three or four days with sweats, headaches, and I never get ill. I felt really tired and lethargic and hot and my heart was, I was having panic attacks.

鈥淚 was overthinking everything and my whole brain was a blur of negativity. Anything bad that could have happened on The Voice had already happened in my head: 鈥業鈥檓 not going to be able to do this, I鈥檓 gonna freeze when they ask me a question, I鈥檓 not going to be able to say what I feel. What am I doing?鈥欌��

Talk about mental health

Olly turned to counselling for help, and says it helped him cope with his feelings. And now he hopes that his experiences can help other people to talk about their own mental health.

鈥淚 went and saw someone,鈥� he told the Sun鈥檚 Fabulous Magazine. 鈥淎nd it was weird because as soon as I came out of that meeting I felt better. So I went and saw her again and came out feeling amazing. Then I went and did The Voice and smashed it.

鈥淎nd it was all about that [X Factor] mistake. I kept thinking: 鈥業鈥檓 gonna do it again,鈥� and so it became easier for me to say no to things, to turn stuff down.

鈥淚 only had those couple of sessions but it helped me understand why I was feeling like that, and traced it all the way back to 2015. I鈥檇 parked it instead of dealing with it.鈥�

He added: 鈥淭hat was my moment and I鈥檝e no shame in the fact that I got help. I鈥檓 happy to talk about it because it affected me and I鈥檓 the most super-confident performer there is.

鈥淚 know there are a lot of people who go through a lot worse than me. What I鈥檓 trying to say to anyone reading this is don鈥檛 be afraid to talk about it.

鈥淲ill this happen again at some point in my life? Most likely, and I鈥檒l deal with it again. At least I know now and I can recognise it and I鈥檓 not scared to talk to someone.鈥�

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